Why was "Erase All" removed? Minor 40D Rant

[jlipkin]

I've heard from many people that one should format a card after images have been downloaded, rather than simply erasing images.

[Aaron Winters]

Glad it's gone myself so I do not even need to be careful about not hitting it. Actually I make it a point to not delete on the camera but rather wait till I get them in LR.

I prefer to format so that it refreshes/rebuilds the file system rather than taking things out of the FAT table.

[Noel_Carboni]

If you don't erase on camera, how careful do you have to be?

Well, I've honestly never used Format except perhaps when I've bought a new card (i.e., 4 or 5 times total), across D30, 10D, 20D, and now 40D models. And I've never had a lick of trouble with a corrupt file system. That's hundreds of thousands of images taken, 10 or 50 at a time. What's that, something like 2,000 to 10,000 uses of the "Erase All" function on just a couple of different cards (I retired my 32 MB and 128 MB cards loooong ago).

From my own experience there's been no practical advantage to Format over Erase All.

-Noel

[Michael_Coons]

Noel,

Set up your "My Menu Setting" with "Format" in it and will be quicker than "Erase All." I have My Menu set up with the top 5 items that I need to change often such as: Protect images, Quality, Highlight tone priority, Custom WB, and Format. Now when I press the Menu button I don't have to dig through the Menu to find what I need. I can also sort to have the order I want.


Michael

[Walter_Kimmel]

Still shooting with a 1DMkII. Themain difference between Erase All and Format is that Erase All will not erase any files marked with the little key icon signifying write protection. (At least, it will not erase the files before asking, i think.) Formatting in camera will erase everything, and is actually faster than an Erase All.

Personally, I leave all the files on the card until they are verified to be on my computer's hard drive. Then, I reformat in the camera. The only times I have resorted to Erase All have been when I shot a number of images before realizing that I had forgotten to reformat the card. Then, I protected the new files and used Erase All.

[KaraSchaeffer]

Personally, I leave all the files on the card until they are verified to be on my computer's hard drive. Then, I reformat in the camera.

Me too. I've always done this since I owned the 10D when it first came out and the chap from Canon (forgotten his name, sorry) on the original forum recommended that you format in camera rather than erase all. I also found that format was quicker than erase all. So the removal of that option doesnt bother me in the slightest. Still got to get the hang of setting up "My Menu" though

[George J. Fenisey]

ERASE ALL was useful. A 20D can't format my 16GB Extreme III card, so "Erase All" is the only choice. If you are just messing around and have determined one exposure is worth saving, you "Protect" it. It makes that one exposure as read only. "Erase All" all will then delete/erase all except the protected exposures.

I find that's a useful procedure.

I believe a 40D can format a 16GB card. Cards up to 48GB have been mentioned as being in the works.

George